A Weight Lifted
by awhitefairytale
Summary: Regina doesn't want to feel anymore. Everything is just too difficult. She's in the process of putting herself under a sleeping curse when Emma barges in.


**This was a prompt I received on tumblr. Not too long :) Let me know what you think!**

_**Prompt: Emma talks Regina out of the sleeping curse a second time in SB by telling her the feelings she has for her. **_

* * *

She heard the footsteps but she didn't care. She didn't care much about anything at all at this point. Her heart was too broken, shattered into a million pieces. Henry was never going to remember who she was. Zelena had taken everything else from her. Life… life had seemingly become too hard. She didn't have the courage to kill herself, no. But an eternal sleep? That she seemed to have enough bravery for.

She'd found the hair pin in Zelena's house sitting right on the bedside table. It was as if Zelena had left it there, right in plain sight, because she'd known Regina had come to wits end. Maybe this was the plan all along. A part of her wondered if Zelena herself had planned on using it at some point, but she quickly dismissed it and stared at the slender metal in her hand. One prick to the finger and she'd be out for good.

Regina was sure she didn't have a true love. She wanted to believe Henry was, with all her heart she wanted to believe it, but he didn't remember her. How could he be her true love?

So with the thought of never waking again, she lifted the pin, guiding her finger towards it. She only jumped a little when the door to her bedroom was slammed open.

"Regina Mills stop it right now or so help me god I'll…"

"You'll what Miss Swan? Shoot me?" She didn't even meet her eyes to the blonde's. She couldn't look at her because she was afraid that if she did, she may just lose the last bit of courage she had to end her suffering.

Emma didn't have an answer because she didn't know what she'd do. But with all her heart, she believed she needed, she wanted, to stop Regina.

"_Regina._" The blonde said her name with a sigh.

The way she said it, Regina was curious, almost curious enough to look up.

"Regina please. Please look at me."

But the brunette wouldn't. She couldn't. She lowered the pin into her lap, figuring she could at least hear the blonde out.

"Look at me."

Footsteps drew nearer but Regina shook her head. She couldn't do it. The footsteps stopped and she saw Emma's boots just below her.

"Regina, please. Please don't do this. Just look at me." Emma was begging, pleading for her to listen.

"Regina, please, damn it, I need you to look at me."

Regina's eyes moved up the blonde's body slowly, blinking when brown eyes met watery green. The blonde had tears in her eyes, mascara smudged just a little at the corner of her eye.

Emma didn't say anything when their eyes met, continuing only to hug herself, arms wrapped tightly. She bit her lip and Regina could tell she was trying to hold back tears. Minutes later, Emma finally pulled the ripped envelope from her pocket.

"You were hoping I'd get this after you did it, weren't you?"

Regina couldn't lie to the blonde, but responded only with a nod, eyes shutting tight as she did.

"Regina, please don't do this. I'm begging you not to."

"Why? Why does it matter to you so much?"

"Regina I…"

"Emma, I have nothing left. Henry won't ever remember me. Everything and everyone I have ever loved has been ripped from my life. I can't keep living like this. I have no energy left to keep living like this!" The tears were streaming from her eyes now. Everything was too hard.

"Regina I…"

"It's too hard Emma."

"Please… please just listen to me," Regina had the urge to continue fighting with her, to fulfill the need to get the blonde to leave the room. But when the blonde placed her hands on the sides of her face, all argument went out the window.

A deep sigh and a few tears later, Emma crouched down, her eyes level with Regina's. Her hands still rested on the sides of Regina's face.

"Regina, you can't do it because… because I… I'm in love with you. I'm completely in love with you and I cannot imagine my life without you. Even if we weren't together in that way, I couldn't imagine not having you there to fight with, to parent Henry with. And I know you think Henry will never remember you, but we have to keep trying." Regina watched the blonde's tears flow freely now but didn't say a word. "I would go to the ends of every realm to find a way to make Henry remember so that you could be happy again. I would do anything to make you happy. I'm so ridiculously in love with you. When you were testing the waters with Hood, it absolutely killed me inside. I couldn't bear to watch you be with him. But you seemed happy, for a while anyway. And though I only wanted you to be with me, I told myself you were happy and that's all I wanted for you. But this Regina? What you're doing now? I can't… I can't let you do this. I got that letter you left for me and Henry and I swore my heart broke into a million tiny pieces. So maybe it's selfish of me, not wanting you to do what you think is best for you. But I can't let you Regina because… because I love you. I love you with every little part of me."

Both women were crying and Emma dropped her hands. The silence continued on and Emma was sure she had gone too far, but that weight was lifted from her heart. Maybe, just maybe, her confession had lifted a small weight from Regina's as well.

Regina looked at the pin in her lap, letting all of Emma's words register in her mind.

"I'm sorry, but I had to let you know Regina. I had to let you know that I love you. And… if you do… put yourself under that sleeping curse, I will do anything, anything at all to try to wake you from it. So help me god, I will kiss you over and over again, portal jump into the deepest pits of hell… anything… until you wake up. Because I cannot imagine a world without you."

When Regina looked into green eyes, she knew the blonde meant every word she said. She could see, underneath the sadness and pain, that Emma Swan, Savior of the realms and child of her enemy, loved her with all her heart.

And before she knew it, her hands were wrapping into that stupid red leather jacket and pulling the blonde towards her, pressing their lips together softly. It was only a flutter of a kiss at first, delicate and soft, but when an electric shock of sorts went through both of their bodies, they pressed further together, heating up the kiss.

It was a passionate thing, that kiss. Regina wasn't sure she had ever kissed anyone quite like that. But she liked it. She saw the metaphorical fireworks behind her eyes as she wrapped her fingers in blonde curls, pulling the blonde toward her, making sure their bodies were pressed together inch for inch. The minutes stretched on and Regina began to wonder if they kissed long enough, if they melt into one another.

The two didn't hear the door open downstairs, nor did they hear the footsteps hurrying up the stairs. So wrapped up in one another, they didn't notice Henry walk in, grimacing before quietly saying,

"Mom?"

The two pulled apart and Emma jumped to her feet, rushing over to the boy. She hadn't thought of what Henry might think were he to find his mother making out with another woman. She put a hand to his shoulder, "Henry I…." But he didn't look at her. He pressed past her and straight toward Regina.

"Mom?" His eyes were wide as he looked at the brunette; her lips bright red and hair a mess, tears tracks marring her face.

"Henry? Do you…"

"I remember. Mom, I remember everything."


End file.
